KEYS(6) KEYS(6)
NAME
keys - secrets shared with signer
DESCRIPTION
The file /keydb/keys exists only on a host acting as a
`signer' (authentication server, Certifying Authority). It
holds a password entry for each user registered with an
Inferno server. Each entry contains a user name, a pass-
word, the time at which the entry expires, and the entry's
status. The password is the secret shared between the user
and signer (authentication server), allowing the signer to
sign a certificate to authenticate a user's public key to
others, using the secret to check the user's identity. The
actual secret is not stored, but rather its SHA-1 hash.
The file is encrypted with a secret provided by the signer's
administrator; normally that secret is entered once when
authentication services are started by svc/auth on the host
acting as signer (see svc(8)). The file should also be read-
able and writable only by the user identity that runs the
signing service (ie, mode 600, see chmod(1)). Entries are
usually accessed only through the name space provided by
keyfs(4), which decrypts the file into internal data struc-
tures given the administrative key, and makes each entry
visible as a separate directory. Using that name space,
entries are added and updated by an administrator using
changelogin(8), a user can change a secret using passwd(1)
via keysrv(4), and it is accessed for signing by logind(8)
to obtain the secret used to verify the identity of a client
requesting a certificate (typically via security-login(2)).
FILES
/keydb/keys
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